The beta review period for Unicode® 17.0 has started and is open until July 1, 2025.
The beta is intended primarily for review of character property data and changes to algorithm specifications (Unicode Standard Annexes and certain Unicode Technical Standards that are synchronized with the Unicode Standard). Also, a complete draft of the core specification text is available for review during the beta period.
For this release, 4,847 new characters have been added, bringing the total number of encoded characters in Unicode 17.0 to 159,845. The largest set of added characters is in the new CJK Unified Ideographs Extension J block, with 4,298 new CJK unified ideographs, which increases the number of CJK unified ideographs to over 100,000. The new additions also include characters for the following five new scripts:
Beria Erfe is a modern-use script used in central Africa.
Chisoi is a modern-use script used in northeast India.
Tolong Siki is a modern-use script used in northeast India.
Tai Yo is the traditional script of Tai Yo communities in northern Vietnam.
Sidetic is an historic script used in ancient Anatolia.
In addition to new CJK unified ideographs, nearly 2,500 already-encoded CJK ideographs were horizontally extended, adding source references and glyphs reflecting use of those ideographs in China and Korea.
Another notable character addition is the SAUDI RIYAL SIGN, recently created by the Saudi Central Bank for its riyal currency.
See The Pipeline and the delta code charts for details on all of the new characters.
In addition to new characters, there are some significant character property and algorithm changes, including the following:
A proposed update to UAX #14, Unicode Line Breaking Algorithm, introduces a new Line_Break property value and associated rule changes.
In a proposed update to UTS #39, Unicode Security Mechanisms, a large number of Identifier_Type property value changes are made. These values are used for defining a default recommended set of characters for identifiers used in secure contexts.
Also note that locations of data files for synchronized UTSes have been changed. See the Unicode 17.0 Beta landing page for other noteworthy property and algorithm changes. For full details regarding the Beta, see Public Review Issue #526. Feedback should be reported under PRI #526 using the Unicode Contact Form by July 1, 2025.
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